Body of missing snowmobile driver found

HENRY COUNTY, Iowa --A snowmobile driver that was reported missing has been found dead, according to a deputy with the Henry County Sheriff's office.

Spencer Ray Adam, age 25, was reported missing around 1:50 a.m. on Monday, January 14, according to a statement from the Henry County Sheriff's Office. His body was found around 10 a.m. in the Skunk River.

Authorities said they found his snowmobile around 3 a.m. near the Skunk River and Highway 34 bridge. This is just south of Rome, Iowa, in the western part of Henry County.

A conservation officer with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Dan Henderson, said the search for Adam started where his snowmobile was found. Investigators took photos of the area and began their "visual search," said Henderson.

"What that entails is... shoreline searching, making sure that nobody is on the banks or anything like that," Henderson explained. "And then we start to look in the water."

That's where Adam's body was found, just before 10 a.m., Henderson said. His body was found about three-quarters of a mile away from the snowmobile.

"The Department of Natural Resources would like to encourage everbody to make sure that you're not riding alone," said Henderson. "That way if you do happen to go off a rail or hit an unknown culvert or something like that, that you at least have a second set of eyes with you."